14 May 2018 Tom Lavers A drive of little more than an hour from the eastern edge of Tigray into Afar serves to illustrate some of the many extremes of Ethiopia: a drop in altitude of more than 1,000m; an increase in temperature from the moderate (albeit far from M

12 December 2017 Today, the ESID team, including Tom Lavers, Sohela Nazneen and Sam Hickey, are at UNRISD in Geneva, presenting at two seminars: 9.15 – 16.00 – The political drivers of transformative and inclusive development: Examples from social policy and gender-egalita

2nd October 2017 Last month, Marion Ouma of the University of South Africa presented her excellent paper to the DSA Conference. Drawing from the nexus of policy transfer and Foucauldian perspective on power, the paper investigates the extent to which power relations determined the upt

13th September 2017 We had a very interesting few days at the DSA Conference in Bradford last week and a highlight for ESID was Tom Lavers and Sam Hickey’s panel on Negotiating the Politics of Social Protection. In this podcast, Lars Buur, Associate Professor of Political Econom

6 July 2017 On a recent visit to Addis Abada in Ethiopia, Tom Lavers presented his latest research on social protection and Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme. This is his presentation. Read the research on social protection in Ethiopia

By Kate Pruce 8 February 2017 Although Zambia was reclassified by the World Bank as a middle-income country in 2011, poverty levels remain high, with 54.4% of the population living below the poverty line and over 40% in extreme poverty in 2015. The increased per capita gross national

Lean Alfred Santos 10 August 2016 This blog was first published on Devex.com An investment commitment in the right social protection programmes can help countries to leap over others if they decide it’s a priority. But it’s essential to ensure social protection init

Dr Tom Lavers 12 April 2016 ESID research on the politics of social protection shows that crises have been central drivers of social protection expansion in Ethiopia, and elsewhere. Today, Ethiopia is rocked by further challenges: the most severe El Niño in decades, leading to a food

25 February 2016 Kate Pruce The sculpture below in Mexico City is called ‘El Ángel de la Securidad Social’ (The Angel of Social Security) and was created by Jorge Marín in 2013 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro So

17 February 2016 What is your educational background? My first degree was in history, from the University of Delhi. Then I did a Masters in Social Work, which as a subject in India is closer to Development Studies. I then worked with international NGOs in India for several years, espe